Clinical and Experimental Psychology

Impact Of Social Media On Personality And Psychological Well-Being Of Young Adults

Aditya Mishra^{* *}Correspondence: Aditya Mishra, Anand Engineering College, Agra Uttar Pradesh, India, India, Email:

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Introduction

The introduction of different social media networking sites has changed the internet landscape by allowing us to connect with people from all over the world. In today's world, an individual can connect with someone in a completely different part of the world in a matter of seconds. In other words, social media has made the entire world available at our fingertips. It has been ingrained in people's daily lives. The primary definition of social media is "extremely affordable and widely accessible electronic technologies that enable anybody to post and access information, engage on shared projects or activities, or make connections." Also, 'Social media and online environments' refer to tech devices and platforms such as Social Networking Services (SNS) such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, as well as blogs, chat rooms, games, online health, education, and other services, applications, clouds, and sharing sites. Users of social media have a deep and rich experience in involvement, engagement, and cooperation. Various social media networking sites generate, like, and share content on the web, as well as work with others in an interactive manner, making it simpler to obtain details and reach out to one another online. In Asia and the Pacific, social networking sites dominate Internet usage [1]. Women are more engaged in utilizing social media networking sites than men. Though social networking platforms are now more popular among young people, research shows that engagement by the elderly has been rising in recent years. In general, social media may be divided into four categories: 1) Internet networks and ecosystems for example, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, and Twitter 2) Internet publishing, such as YouTube, Flickr, RSS, Slide Share, and Twitter 3) Online collaboration platforms, such as Wikis such as blogs such as WordPress or Blogger, and collaborative office solutions such as Office 365, Google Docs, MS Lync, Debategraph, Teamwork, or Work Spot, and 4) online feedback mechanisms, such as voting and debating, rating and commenting, surveys, polls, blogs, and so on. Online networks and ecosystems construct and reflect peer networks and interactions. Online publishing tools offer services or platforms for sharing and publishinginformation on the internet. People's cooperation and work processes are facilitated through collaborative platforms. Online feedback tools provide audience involvement through one-way or two-way conversations. Many organizations have used social media in their organizational structure to enhance marketing.

Governments from numerous countries have also merged social media into e-governance; however, to make this integration safer and more efficient, frameworks, rules, and guidelines have been developed to manage this integration [1]. The youth are among the most active users of social media. It is to be found that young people use social media very early in their lives. Children as young as five years old use social media (including SNS), with use rising dramatically as they become older [2]. All of this makes you wonder if something this powerful and with such a broad reach can be all good. In the research it is seen that social media is beneficial to youth in the field of education; however, social media is deteriorating social norms and harms youth study. Social media tends to promote unethical photographs, videos, and visuals among youth; anti-religious posts and links create social hatred among individuals of diverse communities; negative usage of social media worsens international relations, and social media plays a significant role in raising political awareness among the youth. Personality may be defined as a dynamic system that creates distinctive patterns such as the individual's behavior, ideas, and feelings. The current study investigates personality in terms of the widely acknowledged Big Five personality traits. The Big Five personality qualities include openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism and are related to the following characteristics: being dependable, generous, and well-mannered (agreeableness); conscientious, hardworking, well-organized, punctual, and truthful (conscientiousness); sociable, friendly, energetic, and enthusiastic (extraversion); shorttempered, whiny, and unstable (neuroticism); and curious, imaginative, original, and unique (neuroticism) (openness to experience) [ 3].

Openness to experience

The openness to experience component of personality is defined by a propensity to explore new activities.

Conscientiousness

Conscientious individuals are more conscious of their acts and the implications of their actions than unconscientious persons.

Extraversion

Extraversion is defined as gregarious, self-assured behavior. In social circumstances, extroverts are social, outspoken, and frequently assertive.

Agreeableness

Individuals with high levels of agreeableness are sociable and cooperative. Agreeable individuals are more trusting of others and more generous, prepared to help others in times of need, and are often regarded as more liked by their peers and coworkers [4].

Neuroticism

This personality trait, often known as neuroticism, is scored on a scale ranging from emotional stability to emotional instability. Individuals who have a high level of neuroticism are commonly anxious. They are more apprehensive and frequently worried, overthinking and exaggerating their concerns. Psychological well-being refers to intrapersonal and interpersonal levels of good functioning that would include one's relatedness to others as well as self-referent attitudes such as mastery and personal progress [5].

Carol Ryff’s model of psychological well-being

Carol Ryff’s 6 dimensions of psychological well-being-

1. Self-Acceptance: Self-acceptance is precisely what its name implies: total acceptance of oneself. True self-acceptance entails accepting yourself as you are, without any limitations, restrictions, or exceptions.

2. Personal Growth: Personal growth relates to your capacity to extend, enhance, and grow. Rather than desiring to stay in the same mental and emotional state, those who want to grow personally love the process as much as, if not more than, the result. Those who seek out new challenges and work hard to achieve their objectives take concrete measures to enhance or accomplish goals leads to growth.

3. Purpose in Life: If you don't learn how to better exhibit your talents, life becomes meaningless. When you don't find your soul path, you feel meaningless. Having Life's purpose is like a navigator; it shows you where you should go. It gives you a feeling of direction, and once you discover it, half of your troubles evaporate. The path that leads you to your maximum potential is your life's purpose. It enables you to create wonderful things in your life that not only make you successful but also benefit the planet. Therefore, having a life purpose is essential. The major driving goals of your life-the reasons you get up in the morning-make up your life purpose. The purpose may affect behavior, define objectives, provide a sense of direction, and generate meaning in one's life. Some individuals associate purpose with vocation-meaningful, gratifying employment. Others find fulfillment in their commitments to family and friends. Others turn to spirituality or religious ideas for meaning. In all these facets of life, some people may find their purpose plainly articulated [6].

4. Positive relations with others: Positive relations with others are commonly regarded as one of the foundations of happiness. Experimental and longitudinal studies have frequently demonstrated their positive impact on emotional and physical well-being.

5. Environmental mastery: It entails living in peace with the land and realizing how our daily actions affect the world around us. It encompasses both our physical and social settings, as well as the development of a lifestyle that honors and enhances both. It's about recognizing the longterm consequences of our daily choices and holding ourselves accountable for current and long-term environmental demands, as well as the earth's resource constraints.

6. Autonomy: You are self-determining and fully independent; you can resist societal influences to think and behave in specific ways; you can govern your conduct from the inside, and you can judge yourself based on your standards. Low Autonomy: You are worried about the expectations and judgments of others; you rely on the judgments of others to make key decisions, and you adhere to societal pressures to think and act in specific ways [7].

Review Literature

Upadhayay, V. (2018) conducted to analyze a possible relationship between various verticals of psychological well-being (positive wellbeing, general health, anxiety, depressive mood, self-control) and social media usage. The sample consisted of 50 Indian college students between 18 years-21 of age. No significant correlation between social media usage and anxiety, depressed mood, general health, or vitality was found. In contrast, there was a significant negative correlation between social media usage and well-being, and self-control. In the future, additional research will be needed to identify and describe the potential relationship between social media usage and psychological well-being using a larger sample population over a longer period.

Gil de Zuniga, H., Diehl, T., Huber, B., & Liu, J. (2017) study uses data from 20 societies (N=21,314) to investigate the relationship between people's personality traits and social media use. On key social media dimensions such as frequency of use, social interaction, and news consumption, a measure of the "Big Five" personality traits is tested. Findings from various societies suggest that, while extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are all positive predictors of various types of social media use, emotional stability and openness are negatively related to them.

Singh, M. M., Amiri, M., & Sabbarwal, S. (2017) study focuses on the primary reasons why young people use social media, as well as the amount of time they spend on social networking sites. The focus of this research is on the major; and benefits and drawbacks of using social media in the lives of youngsters. According to the findings of the study, excessive useof social media causes youngsters to become depressed.

In Ozguven, N., & Mucan, B. (2013) the correlation between social media and users' personality traits was studied. To collect data from 503 Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences students, we used a questionnaire that included the five-factor model of personality, a life satisfaction scale, and a social media marketing activities scale.

Two personality traits (conscientiousness and openness to experience), two demographic attributes (education and income level), and life satisfaction are all important predictors of social media use, according to the findings. Relationships with the other factors investigated were not found to be significant [2].

Methods

Aim

The aim of this study is to find the impact of social media usage on young adults’ personalities and psychological features.

Objective

1) To study how social media usage impact on the personality of young adults. 2) To study how social media usage impact on the psychological wellbeing of young adults to study the difference in social media usage among men and female.

Hypothesis

There will be a significant impact of social media usage on personality traits in young adults There will be a significant impact of social media usage on psychological well-being in young adults. There will be a significant difference in social media usage among males and females.

Inclusive criteria

1. The age range should be between 18 years-25 years old. 2. They should use social media.

Description of tools

1. Social Media Use Questionnaire. 2. NEO- Five-Factor Inventory developed by Costa and McCrae (1992). 3. Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB)

Procedure

Responses were collected from the participants using the Social Media Use Questionnair, The NEO- Five-Factor Inventory Questionnaire, and Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales (PWB). They were informed about the confidentiality of the results. Instructions on how to respond were given before each questionnaire. Statistical analysis was done, and conclusions were drawn after discussion [8].

Statistical analysis

Regression analysis was used to find out the impact of social media usage on the personality and psychological well-being of young adults and a t-test was used to find the difference between males and females in how much they use social media.

Result and Discussion

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of social media usage on the personality and psychological well-being of young adults. Table 1 shows the Impact of Social media usage on personality traits in which Neuroticism domains-R depicts that the model does not perfectly predict the observed relationship between social media usage and neuroticism as its value is less than 1 which is 526. R2 depicts the variability in the outcome by the predictors, its value of .277 shows that there is good variability in the data as in social media usage and neuroticism. The model is not perfect as 27.7% of the variability in neuroticism is produced by the predictor variable that is social media usage while 72.7% of the variability is caused by other variables. It has been seen that only the domain of neuroticism was found to be significantly impacted by social media usage but other domains which were agreeableness, extraversion, openness toexperience, and conscientiousness were not significantly impacted by social media usage. Hence, a part of hypothesis 1 is accepted which is the neuroticism domain, and other domains which are agreeableness, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness are rejected.

Table 1. Impact of Social media usage on personality traits of young adults.

In Table 2, there is a negative relationship between the predictor and the outcomes which indicate as social media usage increases, psychological well-being decreases. So, hypothesis 2 is accepted, as social media usage is a significant predictor of psychological well-being.

Table 2. Impact of social media usage on psychological well-being of young adults.

In Table 3, it can be found that there is no significant mean difference between males and females on social media usage as the t-value was found to be 0.757 and the p-value is 0.451(p>0.05). Therefore, hypothesis 3 is rejected. However, Perrin, A. (2015) investigated that for many years, women were more likely than men to use social networking sites, though these differences have shrunk since 2014. Today, 68% of all women use social media [9].

Table 3. Mean difference between males (N=53) and females (N=53) on social media usage.

Summary

The current study seeks to determine the impact of social media usage on the personality and psychological well-being of young adults. A total of 106 al(N=106) participants (53 male and 53 female) from the general population ranging in age from 18 years to 25 years were recruited. Overall, social media usage is a significant predictor of psychological well-being, indicating a negative relationship between social media usage and psychological well-being. However, social media usage is a significant predictor of neuroticism [3].

Limitations

Variables related to social media usage, such as purposes of use and most popular websites could have been included in the present study. The sample size could have been increased to obtain more reliable results, but this was not done in this study due to time constraints. To gain a more in-depth understanding of the subject, the questionnaires used could have been combined with a few interviews with open-ended questions and conversation analysis.

Future Recommendations

More studies and research are needed in this area, as social media particularly in the Indian context, raises public awareness. The sample size can be increased to obtain more reliable results.

Future implications

The present studied the impact of social media usage on personality and psychological wellbeing. There were a few key links identified here, one of which is "the negative relationship between social media usage and psychological well-being" this provides a warning flag for young adults and future generations alike. Another conclusion is that the predictor and outcome have a positive relationship, indicating that as social media usage rises, so does neuroticism. The new study adds to the body of knowledge by revealing a negative relationship between social media use and psychological well-being [10].

Conclusion

The study showed a negative relationship between social media usage and the psychological well-being of young adults. Also, the use of social media is a significant predictor of Personality traits (neuroticism). Other personality traits (agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness) were not significantly impacted by social media usage. It was also found that there is no significant mean difference between males and females in social media usage.

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